Hold onto your hairpiece, Harry

That has cleared our skies and turned the winds to the west. But as the storm intensifies, the steep pressure gradient between that low and high pressure building into the region this weekend means we're going to see the winds pick up later Friday and Saturday.

Temperatures will reach the mid-60s today, dropping to the 40s overnight. Not good news for those of us trying to keep our hands off the furnace switch until Nov. 1. Anyone cave in to the chill yet?

Our place was hovering at 68 degrees this morning. We had to don the flannels last night. And the forecast calls for temperatures to slide next week, barely making it to 60 degrees during the daytime by mid-week. We're hoping that opening the SE window shades to the sunshine today will help us gain some solar heat.

Anyway, with all this wind, the NWS has posted small craft advisories for Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake for today, tonight and Saturday. Gale warnings may be needed if winds keep in increasing. More SCAs may be needed for Sunday. Boaters take heed. You can also expect very low "blowout tides" this weekend as the northwest winds shove water down the bay.

Meanwhile, the coastal storm, as predicted, is battering New England and sending snow into the higher altitudes of northern New England.

At the summit of Mt. Washington, in New Hampshire's White Mountains, the observatory is reporting temperatures in the upper 20s, with winds near hurricane force, gusting to 80 mph in snow.

Of course, I live in the city, where it's warmer that the 'burbs. I also grew up in NE Indiana, where it gets colder earlier than here, gets much colder than the Baltimore/DC area, and stays cold (a complete month of highs below freezing, anyone?), unlike this area.

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Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1992, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page. Frank also answers readers’ weather queries for the newspaper and the blog. Frank Roylance retired in October 2011. Maryland Weather is now being updated by members of The Baltimore Sun staff